" Dig Wars " TV show. Your opinions.

Basically my only gripe is...how hard would it be for Josh or Larry to just quickly add in a"we try to make it look like we where never here"and a "we do it for the love of history, the chances of gettin rich are slim to none". Instead, the producers I presume, stick to their bullsheet reality tv formula. And no offense, but that 10k for a lifetime of finds is very is easy to do in my oponion, lol.

Daniel Tn Wrote:
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Honestly though...how many sites
have you had that were taken off limits as a
direct result of the TV shows?



I don't know how you could know for any specific site. When some moron leaves craters everywhere and gets an area put off limits to metal detecting, there's no way to know whether he (or she) was inspired to start detecting by these shows.

If the number of proposed bans across the country starts increasing substantially (or not) then I guess we'll have an idea.

So our main compaint seems to be bringing in NEW people to the hobby? Not everyone new is doing this distruction or taking shortcuts. I see more and more hunters digging hole and leaving their trash...... in the water its even worse. Surely no can believes this is just the new hunters. Ive talked to water hunter with no pouches or trash..... a good majority arent NEW guys. There are always going to be nuckelheads in the hobby.... show or no show.

Dew

Ain't that the truth Dew, Reminds me of fishermen who leave their containers along the banks, they aren't all just newbies. I'll never understand the mindset of ' leaving trash is ok ', WTH !
Go in with it, come out with it. In our case, go in without it, come out with it.

dewcon4414 Wrote:
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> So our main compaint seems to be bringing in NEW
> people to the hobby?
>


The main complaint should be that detecting on TV brings the hobby to everyones attention. People see it, they talk about it, they misunderstand it, they judge it.

A lot of people who tune in may have no interest in ever going detecting but the show catches their attention so they watch. If it wasn't for that show being on TV, detecting might never have entered their minds, but suddenly it becomes an issue. They say to themselves, so that's what those people do. I'm not sure I like the idea of people removing these things from the ground without any authorization. I'm going to bring it up at the next town meeting and see what they say. I'll also have a talk with my brother in law the state representative.

Multiply this by a thousand different scenarios all across the country over the next five or ten years and watch it spread like a disease. All because someone saw a detecting show on TV.

.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2013 08:55PM by Badger in NH.

Sorry but I disagree with 10k for a lifetime of finds being easy to obtain. MAYBE if you got into the hobby back in the 70s or 80s and have kept everything, you might have emassed a collection but I bet you put far more $ into acquiring it than what you care to admit. If it were that easy, people wouldn't continually be searching for the perfect detector. The illusion of it being easy is what keeps detector companies in business and dealers paying the light bills. Everybody gets in some sort of mindset that if we could only have a machine to do this or that...then we would have it made. Whether that be a machine that goes deeper...handles EMI better...works in iron better...ID's targets more precisely, etc...we think that it will make it easy for us. Oh and btw....what something is appraised at, don't mean you're gonna get that price for it if you ever sell it. Something is only worth what somebody else is willing to pay for it...don't matter if the book value says it's worth X amount....if nobody is going to pay that amount for it...then it's not worth that amount. If I won a million dollars in the lottery...guess what...I'm only getting $670,000 after 33% is taken out in taxes. So I better not make plans on spending that other $330,000...cause it just ain't gonna be there.

It's like my trips to Virginia. It cost me $250 just for entry fee. Then I had to have a hotel room for 4 nights at $90 a night. I live about 400 miles from there...so that's a tank of gas in my truck...$3.30 a gallon = about $65 to fill my truck up to get there...then another tank to get back. Then there's buying food while I'm there...so in total, I was looking at a rough estimate of around $800 for the weekend hunts....for just me being able to go. Well in those weekends, I dug several nice relics...hundreds of bullets and a couple of breast plates. All said and done, I dug probably $300-400 worth of book value relics on my best weekends...that I actually had $800 invested in being able to dig per hunt...and that wasn't counting my equipment cost. Basically I went $400+ in the hole each time. Was it fun to do? Oh heck yes...but was the investment the greatest thing I could have sank my money into? No, not really.

This area saw a lot of sites get closed down long before there were any shows on TV about metal detecting. There was a club from Chattanooga...that is now disbanded....that the actions of, were the direct result of quite a few local sites being shut down for good. This was back in the 1980s when the club done this...they would just go where they wanted to and one farmer told me they dug up his field he had just sown when he directly told them to NOT go into that field. He came home from church and found every one of them out in that field digging and they were leaving their larger junk items tossed down on top of the ground. He was not a happy camper and banned detecting from his property for almost 30 years...up until he met me and he and I became friends...I was the first person since the 1980s that he let metal detect his farm. But you can to this day, go into that community and ask permission to hunt and that club is the first thing they talk about before they tell you no. And those guys were veteran relic hunters...one of the members even has a popular book on Civil War relics that FEATURES relics from this particular area on some of the pages in the book, with a footnote to a few of the relics telling exactly where they were found...which were in the very field that was off limits. I have a copy of the book and gave a copy to the landowner who owns that field...he just shook his head when I showed him.

There are many things that have hurt the hobby and contributed to the banning of metal detectors over the years. Television is just the latest thing.

Detecting on TV is the biggest problem the hobby has ever faced because it's shown nation wide. The people making the shows didn't think it through enough. They were too busy thinking of detector sales, paychecks and how cool they are.

It's virtually impossible to show metal detecting on TV without damaging the hobby in the process.

.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/18/2013 08:52PM by Badger in NH.

First let me say I'm talking about my area. I live in the suburb's of Chicago and never met Chicago Ron or care to for that matter,But for most we have 3 main area's we detect that are public property. Forest preserves,Parks and Lake fronts. We lost one already and all we have left are parks, and freash water beaches. With the price of gold where it is they see 150,000 claimed to be found the greed takes over. More people more exposer more improper digging techniques. I don't water hunt at this time,But I would like to have the option too. As far as Chicago parks they are so gang infested you could be out there with a back hoe and the cop's could care less,But you are taking a risk also eventhough personaly I haven't had any problems. I could knock on doors at old house's,But that is not my thing. Then again after watching these shows they will probally figure I will just get a detector myself and get rich in my own yard. It's a little different than relic hunting where you are own mostly private property with permission as you can find another ,But these public property's are all we have in the area I live.

While most of us complain about these shows, there's one thing we all can appreciate.

This unsponsored website where the owner believes in free speech.

4 pages of threads on Finds about Dig Wars and other MD shows, including responses from Chicago Ron, just went poof.

Maybe the overwhelming negative feedback to these shows was making some of the website sponsors nervous?

Havn't seen it and probably won't, but it can't be good for MDing.

Haha, yeah Marcamo, I just got banned from finds!

My two cents, I hit a honey hole this winter, the sand came off my beach, I hunted it for 3 weeks, and found what I usually find in 3 years, I hunt alone, I have for 13 years, I've seen 3 people over those years hunting the beaches up here, I know they are hunted, but I never see them, during that 3 week period this winter, I saw 30 hunters, 90 percent didn't fill their holes, and I screamed to deaf ears, they were experience hunters, I talked to a few of them , with the price of gold going up it brought out the scum in this hobby, me being a local, I caught the brunt, I don't think it was the shows, what the shows do, is make people aware of what we are doing and what we are finding and thru these shows an inflated value of things in the ground, in the past 2 years, I have been asked if I got a pocket full of treasure ten fold more, most people don't want to do this, they don't want to get their hands dirty, I work in a service job, and people can't change a light bulb, I just wish the show would be honest, I think the hunters try, but the producers are the greedy one, even this hobby can get you gold fever or divorced, you all know people

I'm not trying to get into a pissing match with ya Daniel, but I stand by my words. Hell, look at the beach hunters. You said lifetime.

You are in good company deathray, lots of Finds expats here!

To tell the truth. I've always disliked the reality TV genre, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised I don't like the MD ones.

The difference is that now they are negatively affecting my hobby, so it kind of gets my dander up a bit.

But regardless of what I or anyone else thinks, Pan dora's box has been opened and the shows aren't going away any time soon. Reality show producers have discovered that detecting shows fetch ratings. Needless to say, they don't give a darn about our hobby.

They'll milk this trend until it runs dry and then move on to the next trend.

What about beach hunters? Unfortunately I've been on the forums for 17 years (gee I feel like a dork now). I got into the whole water hunting thing for a while and really followed some of the hardcore beach guys in their posts and videos. Gravediggermaxx from YouTube hunted the beaches he called "The Lane" nearly every day with friends of his and posted YouTube vids of the hunts....he hunts the Virginia Beach area. He found a few cheaper pieces of jewelry in the time I followed him...but for every day's worth of hunting, it sure wasn't much to show for it. No doubt there are some that have done decent at the beach hunting aspect of the hobby...but the larger majority of which are not in this category. It's so isolated that only a few big names stand out to us...names like Clive James Clynick and Gary T. Drayton who write the beach hunting "site reading" books....we recognize those names. But if it were so easy to do, there wouldn't be a market for the how to books.

Heck my mom plays the scratch off lottery ticket thing and has won over $3,000 in the month time between April-May of this year. That's probably better than most of us from this site found digging in that same time frame. I'm not saying there ain't stuff still out there to find that's really valuable. I'm just saying that few be that find it.

Daniel, I don't dig the beaches for the finds, it's the girls I see, if I knew I was going to dig something nice every time I went out, I would quit work, I do this for fun and to talk to you guys, I hunt playgrounds still, fields, woods, where ever I get permission, I even bottle dig, when it gets to hot and finds are scarce, it's the adventure, you can't show that on the show

these f**ked up shows are beginning to affect our interests!
i smell "obama!"

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Since we're on the subject, check out this video. Funny stuff, but if you find Nazis offensive in any form, then don't watch it. It was done months ago, so doesn't reference 'Dig Wars'.
Nector. Roundness. Civ. Rev. (and the worst one) Boom Baby! Leads viewers to believe we're a bunch of idiots that run and jump in a pond or climb up a tree at our first good find.

[www.youtube.com]

I liked last nights show. Really concentrated on the history. And at least the guys are all normal.

Was it just my imagination or did First Texas just roll out their new multi frequency detector in the first episode?

jmaryt Wrote:
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> these f**ked up shows are beginning to affect our
> interests!
> i smell "obama!"
>
> (h.h.!)
> j.t.


I doubt if "'obama" had any more to do with it than Bubba Bush did, or smells any different.

Commercial TV just has a hard time to do "reality" right. They want to make it too "extremely" entertaining and so the joking and phony stuff is forced onto the viewers. It turns me and I suspect most of us detectorists off.

I do enjoy but sometimes have to grit my teeth watching the show Gold Rush...which is one of the better shows out there.

I've discussed a reality beach metal detecting show with a Canadian producer over a few days time. The producer knew nothing about the hobby and I tried to fill her in the best I could. Her idea was to have a camera crew foloow a beach hunter around and concentrate on finds and discuss the results. I told her that in following me around for two hours a day you might get something interesting after perhaps a month that possibly could fill in ten or twenty minutes of air time. She thought we found two or three pieces of "treasure" every time out.

I think PBS could possibly produce something interesting about metal detecting...like taking on a different aspect (relic, coin, jewelery, lost items returned) of the hobby each week and looking at it in detail and why we do it and why we like doing it. I thoroughly enjoyed the Mud Larks show Chicago Ron did over in the UK.

Regards, Joe (California)

PS: I think writing about "smelling Obama" or "Bubba Bush" ...is prettty childish and makes me dismiss those posters immediately!

I have noticed in the last few weeks alot of people out hunting construction sites ...And they are not the people I have known for the last couple of decades or more....

They have garden tools and walmart machine's....I can tell they are new to the Hobby by watching them....And its quite alot of people...

Might know now why first texas decided to build a perfromance machine at 200.00 buck's...

They must be seeing a surge in the Bounty hunter line....

I have hunted almost my whole life and recently the influx of new detectroist is the most I have seen since say the early to mid 80's....

T.V. does influence the viewer....just as the news media trys to control our perception of the fact's good and bad...the news nowday's is no more than shock value for rating's...
Whatever happened to just reporting the fact's...and let us decide the outcome...

The detector shows are looking for excitement entertainment for rating's...

I would love to see a show about detecting in the FULL approach.Start to finish..

pick a site ...research the site...gain permission to the site...then show the hunt the methods etc till the finds are found then show the study and I.D. of the find's...then have a reveal to the property owner at the end with documentation of the artifacts and history of the site...

Each season could be a new quest...it would take a full season to do it right...

Keith

That would be the way to do it Keith. And I agree with Joe, only pbs would do it.

The only reason PBS would do it is that they're government subsidized and motive for success is removed. There's a lesson there.
The only reasons detecting shows are considered a viable programming concept is the get rich quick motive of the American public and the technology now available , not for the improvement of detector performance , but to provide 500 tv channels that must be filled with this type of trash entertainment.

Badger in NH Wrote:
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> Many of us love the hobby and want to protect its
> future so that we might hunt for the rest of our
> lives. We see these shows as bad publicity and
> destructive in the long term. I have no complaints
> about the content of the shows. The problem is
> that they are on TV and aimed at people who don't
> metal detect. The profits are short term. It's as
> if they know the hobby is going to die and they
> are making as much money as they can while
> contributing to its death.
>
> Metal detecting on TV means more permissions
> denied, more places where it's banned, more new
> people at the sites and beaches, more unethical
> practice and more death to the hobby.
>
> Detecting on TV is not about the hunt, it's about
> greed and celebrity ego. The general public will
> not see it as we do. They won't understand it and
> many viewers will judge the hobby out of
> ignorance. It doesn't have to be this way.
>
> .


very well stated! i agree 150% frustrating as hell,but this is
"dead nuts"accurate.only thing ya can do is write the producers,
and tell 'em how ya feel

dewcon4414 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> So our main compaint seems to be bringing in NEW
> people to the hobby? Not everyone new is doing
> this distruction or taking shortcuts. I see
> more and more hunters digging hole and leaving
> their trash...... in the water its even worse.
> Surely no can believes this is just the new
> hunters. Ive talked to water hunter with no
> pouches or trash..... a good majority arent NEW
> guys. There are always going to be nuckelheads
> in the hobby.... show or no show.
>
> Dew

this is true! some people don't care period,and they been at it for a long,long time!

(h.h.!)
j.t.

Hobo Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> jmaryt Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > these f**ked up shows are beginning to affect
> our
> > interests!
> > i smell "obama!"
> >
> > (h.h.!)
> > j.t.
>
>
> I doubt if "'obama" had any more to do with it
> than Bubba Bush did, or smells any different.


true! but i gotta blame him anyway! it's called "piling on"
the whole country is in on it! people WANT to think he's screwed this up too!
ehe! he! he!...just sayin'

(h.h.!)
j.t.

shoveler Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> The only reason PBS would do it is that they're
> government subsidized and motive for success is
> removed. There's a lesson there.
> The only reasons detecting shows are considered a
> viable programming concept is the get rich quick
> motive of the American public and the technology
> now available , not for the improvement of
> detector performance , but to provide 500 tv
> channels that must be filled with this type of
> trash entertainment.


correct! ratings and ad dollars.it's why ANY tv program is produced.
there is NO other motivating factor to consider,hence,the "danger" to the over all
reputation of the hobby.

(h.h.!)
j.t.

It has gotten to the point with me that I ask myself every other hunt . . . what is it that I am trying to accomplish here again ?
The only thing left is the POUNDED beach. I say that because it has happened that way many times when I step out onto the
beach and I am surrounded by 25 other MD's easily within site and usuing far more powerful equip. than what I swing.

Well I guess when you spend $2,000 or more for one MD you have no choice. And this 10mi. stretch of sand is sifted every night down
to a depth of 12". Gas at nearly $4.00 a gal. / $12 in tolls one way / lodging, food . . . makes me wonder ? I will continue to do it but I will
not invest in any more new equip. regardless of the hype. Two MD's and that's it.

In-land = There are no in-land sites I am comfortable enough to MD.
Laws / Policy or just Plain Attitude - When someone of authority says you better get lost then you better listen and not hesitate or argue.
That is if they give you that much courtesy ? It can be a lot worse than that without any warning.

You ARE NOT ON YOUR PRIVATE PROPERTY . . . remember that.